While I was attending a dental meeting the other night, the speaker got around to talking about the latest "hot" new commodity in preventative dentistry, a product called silver diamine fluoride. The best I can say about this product is that it represents another misguided attempt to control decay.  It has a long history of use worldwide but is only available recently in the United States.  It is marketed as a topical liquid called Advantage Arrest by Elevate Oral Care, 38% silver diamine fluoride.  It is a colorless, odorless, low cost (so rare for dentistry!) and painless to apply treatment to arrest tooth decay.  The usual "access to care," pediatric dentists, and those working with undeserved populations love this stuff.

First of all it is approved by the Food and Drug Administration ONLY for the reduction of dentinal hypersensitivity but it  is believed to arrest carious lesions.  Dentists are using it off-label to arrest carious lesions and as a diagnostic marker.  In other words using this product to treat decay is not its intended use.  Off label use in the medical field is not not new or even uncommon but you should be aware that it is not its intended use before you let anyone use this product on your children or yourself.  In addition it has a very high silver content.  Silver is cytotoxic to all bacteria so this product kills the good bacteria along with the bad.

Next it stains horribly.  Here is a before and after of application

  Silver diamine fluoride will only stain defects in the tooth structure, such as carious lesions and restorative margins; sound tooth structure will not be stained by its application. In addition, silver diamine fluoride is very cost effective as one drop can be used for multiple teeth.

Finally since this product is designed to be reapplied over and over again.  It is yet another example of medicine treating the symptoms and not the problem of a disease.  As a low cost alternative insurance companies have quickly decided to cover it.  This puts you on the "treatment treadmill" where you will be told you need it every few months.  What a great profit center!  A better approach is to do what every other animal on the planet has managed to do and eat what I have termed a species appropriate diet for humans.

Tooth decay is not normal.  Other than humans the only animals that get decay are animals in servitude to humans. This will take a paradigm level change of thinking in nutritional circles but if you want to win it is most certainly the way.  Eating correctly or in what I term a species appropriate diet for humans can prevent you from ever needing someone recommend putting this garbage in your mouth.  There is no reason low income or undeserved people should be denied access to species appropriate foodstuffs.  Then they would not have decay but then again all those dentists would have to look for another profit center.